Plextor PlexTurbo Demo and M6 Pro Release Imminent- FMS 2014 Update

Well, things have been very busy here at FMS over the past few days and now it is finally drawing to a close. Before we left, we stopped by the Plextor booth to see what was going on with them and their product line. There we saw a demonstration of their new PlexTurbo.

PlexTurbo is a RAM caching solution that “includes an Intelligent Boost Engine® (IBE) technology, to automatically detect hot data (frequently accessed) and cold data (occasionally accessed) and applies the best caching patterns for higher performance. With Reduced Memory Usage® (RMU) technology, PlexTurbo will dynamically create and compare data patterns then merge the same command data into one buffer to accelerate write response speed.”

It also automatically protects against data loss or corruption in case of a power loss or system crash and extends the life of the NAND by using smart algorithms to eliminate unnecessary writes. In these tests we see it breaking speeds of over 8,000MB/s.

Not only that, but Plextor also won best in show at FMS this year for the most innovative flash memory technology with their M6e. More on that HERE.

The M6 Pro is finally going to be released, we will have a review up soon, so keep on checking in for when we release it. Capacities will range from 128GB-1TB, it will come with a 3.5″ bracket and SATA cable. Cloning and backup software is going to be included as well. The M6 Pro will offer up to 545MB/s read and 490MB/s write speeds and up to 100,000/88,000 random read and write IOPS.

Furthermore, their M.2 M6e SSDs without the adapters as well as their M6S. The M6S has been out for some time now, for more on it you can check out our review HERE. The M.2 M6e’s come in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities. Speed wise, they offer 770MB/s and up to 625MB/s sequential read/write speeds. The 256GB and 512GB M6e offer up to 105,000/100,000 read/write IOPS. They offer AES 256 encryption and work as boot drives no issue.

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The SSD Review would like to thank Toshiba andAvant Technology for their support in our participation at the Flash Memory Summit 2014.

About Sean Webster

Sean Webster is an SSD fanatic and long time PC tech and enthusiast. He is obsessed with testing and reviewing products and specializes in storage technologies. He is also a professional photographer who indulges in portrait and automotive photography.

Shinra Kishitani

I would like to know how PlexTurbo would protect against power loss. I don’t see how it is possible if they are caching it over on the RAM and the RAM doesn’t have any power loss protection.

Mike

My guess: PlexTurbo is really deduplication:

“PlexTurbo will dynamically create and compare data patterns then merge
the same command data into one buffer to accelerate write response speed”

If you look at how something like ZFS does dedupe, you pay for it with a bit more CPU (to create the hashes used to compare for duplicates) and RAM (to hold a copy of the hash table in RAM)… but CPU is effectively free, and trading RAM for performance is something most users are willing to do. You’re protected from power-loss because that hash table is always in the SSD too: PlexTurbo is just a way to also get it out as a copy in memory.

Dedupe can show big wins for things like virtualization and backups… but on a desktop I don’t think it would help much: so I may be totally wrong in my guess.

Matthew H

Somebody needs to develop an interconnect for motherboards to utilize a 12v battery for exactly what shinra mentioned. They could use a sealed lead-acid battery just like in alarms only a smaller one, which would interconnect with a motherboard. It would then be used as either the primary power source or used as a backup in the event of power loss. Either way best configured how laptops are. In laptops and tablets they already have the battery permanently installed, so no need to worry about that. Ram prices and quantity in laptops and desktops just needs to drop and increase accordingly.